no78who`s afraid ofvirginia woolf

ALBEE/OJASOO/SEMPER

Edward Albee’s play is one of the most beautiful love stories ever
written. At the same time, the synopsis of the story is simple: an older
man and an older woman are married. A younger man and a younger woman
come to visit them. And…all hell breaks loose. Psychological fireworks
go off, where weariness, boredom, hatred, disappointment and loneliness
burn as bright flames, yet where loyalty, passion, faith and love emerge
when the ashes are swept aside. This is a story where two people are
too smart and too desperate to waste their time on social conventions
and moral standards. This is a life and death struggle.

In the detailed analysis of human wishes, which Albee is a master of,
the question, among others, of whether a person’s wish to be happy is
enough to be able to live a happy life is asked. Can a person’s will
overtrump his predestination as that of a biological creature? Which
passions are base: those that burn, or those that fizzle out? If
sincerity is more right than pretence, then why does it hurt more?

This classic play from the 1960’s avant-garde continues to attract
attention to this day from the most varied angles. Some point out the
social criticism of Albee’s text, where among others a view of the world
that is too rational, various socially deceptive goods, and the
possibility of a universal morality are criticised. Others see the
aesthetic interweaving of the play, where actors are given the
opportunity to study people and their own abilities as actors through
the characters of George, Martha, Nick and Honey.

Incidentally, Edward Albee is asked in an interview from long ago:
“How did you find the title for your play?” And Albee replies:

“There was a saloon that I used to frequent, and there was a large
mirror on the ground floor of that saloon where people scrawled
graffiti. Sometime in 1953 or 1954, I was having a beer there one
evening and I saw how someone had scribbled on the mirror with a bar of
soap: “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?” When I started writing the play,
that came to mind. And of course, who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf means –
who’s afraid of life without /.../”